Richard Lester on the Beatles as actors

In an interview with “NME” the director, Richard Lester, said some time ago about the acting qualities of his actors at the time: “George was the best because he never did too much and still always found the right balance. Paul McCartney was so enthusiastic that at times he perhaps exaggerated a little too much. John Lennon, on the other hand, often had something to complain about with sharp words.” Allegedly, only Ringo Starr was a little afraid of his solo scene.

The idea for the film, which today seems like a blueprint for the music video genre, originally came from United Artists in 1964. Lester revealed that he was given a very low budget and a strict deadline for the film because the producers just didn’t want to believe the mushroom heads would be any bigger.

Fear of mole on the set

With just £200,000 in his pocket and a timeframe of three and a half weeks for editing, the now 90-year-old achieved a big surprise success: The first Beatles film made a profit of £12m and was shown at times with 1,600 prints. The costs were already recouped with the pre-orders for the soundtrack to the film. That had never happened at the time, according to the British film director.

But the biggest fear was of a mole on the set. Lester: “Whenever we were allowed to shoot somewhere on the street, there were already thousands of young people around us. With that, the permission to film was usually immediately withdrawn by the police and we had to look for a new location. And all this before people could find out everything and follow their favorite band through social media.”

Richard Lester also directed the second Beatles film, Help! and cast John Lennon in his 1967 film How I Won the War. The filmmaker is best known for his Superman films (“Superman II”, “Superman III”).